As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued this week following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ordering of military forces into the country last Thursday, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been attempting to flee to neighbouring EU countries such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, all of which have borders with Ukraine.
According to statements made by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson at a press conference in Romania on Monday, at least 400,000 Ukrainian refugees have thus far entered EU countries, with an unknown further number having been internally displaced.
Most Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine, meaning that the refugees have been made up largely of women and children.
The media in European countries and worldwide have featured heart-breaking scenes of thousands of Ukrainians, many carrying the few possessions they have been able to take with them, desperately attempting to board trains to take them westwards towards EU countries or caught up in tailbacks many kilometres long as they attempt to cross land borders or escape from towns and cities in Ukraine.
In remarks reported by Reuters, Johansson said that the EU was preparing to grant Ukrainians who flee the war the right to stay and work in the bloc for up to three years, adding that EU border states would get help to cope with the arrivals.
“We have to prepare for millions [to arrive in the EU],” she added after a visit to a border crossing between Romania and Ukraine.
Johansson’s remarks followed UN reports on Sunday that more than 200,000 people have already arrived in Poland from Ukraine, with 71,000 arriving in Hungary, 27,000 in Romania, 41,000 in Moldova, and 18,000 in Slovakia. Many thousands more are expected in the coming days.
According to reports circulating at the weekend, in order to host the refugees the EU is preparing proposals to trigger its temporary protection directive, drawn up after the 1990s war in the Balkans, but never previously used.
This is designed to deal with mass arrivals of displaced persons in the EU and provides for the same level of protection, for one to three years, in all EU states, including a residence permit and access to employment and social welfare benefits.
It means that refugees from Ukraine would be able to live and work in EU countries for up to three years without first registering for asylum or applying for work or other visas.
Since 2017, Ukrainians holding a biometric passport have been able to enter the European Schengen Zone visa free and stay for up to 90 days in any 190-day period. However, they have not been able to work or settle in EU countries or qualify for social welfare benefits.
News of the potential triggering of the EU temporary protection directive was followed, also on Sunday, by an announcement by EU President Ursula von der Leyen that Ukraine’s accession to the EU could be fast-tracked in the wake of the Russian invasion.
Speaking to the Euronews TV channel, Von der Leyen said that “over time, they [Ukraine] belong to us. They are one of us and we want them in.”
Her remarks were followed by statements from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday calling for Ukraine’s immediate accession to the EU under a simplified procedure, though it was unclear how this would work in practice.
A EU-Ukraine Association Agreement has been in force since September 2017 that commits Ukraine to converge its economic policy, legislation, and regulation across a broad range of areas to that of the EU in exchange for political and financial support, access to research and knowledge, and preferential access to EU markets.
Though an agreement of this type may be an important step towards EU membership, Ukraine is not currently an official candidate for EU accession talks.
The EU welcome for Ukrainian refugees and the prospect held out by Von der Leyen for fast-tracked Ukrainian membership of the bloc has been paralleled by strong support for the Ukrainian government in the conflict with Russia, including the provision of extensive military and non-military aid.
An additional €120 million in EU grants has been announced for Ukraine this year, adding to the €160 million initially foreseen, with investments planned of up to €6.5 billion over the next few years.
More importantly, the EU countries have announced that they will be sending “lethal” military aid to Ukraine to support it in resisting invading Russian forces. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Von der Leyen said the EU would be providing some €500 million in arms and other aid to the Ukrainian military in a move described as a “watershed moment” in the bloc’s history.
“For the first time ever, the EU will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack,” she said in an appearance alongside EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell in Brussels.
The EU military aid is in addition to weapons already promised to Ukraine by EU member states, with Germany saying that it will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles and Sweden that it will send 5,000 anti-tank weapons, 5,000 helmets, 5,000 body shields and 135,000 field rations, as well as $50 million in funding to the Ukrainian military.
Denmark is reportedly sending 2,700 anti-tank weapons and allowing volunteers to join a foreign brigade to fight in Ukraine. Belgium is sending 3,000 machine guns and 200 anti-tank grenade launchers.
According to a NATO statement on Sunday, “Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States have already sent or are approving significant deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine… including Javelin missiles and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as millions of euros of financial assistance.”
In addition to the support for Ukraine, the EU is also sanctioning Russia in association with similar sanctions being introduced by the US and UK. All transactions with the Russian central bank are to be banned in an effort to “paralyse its assets” and shares in Russian state-owned entities may no longer be listed on EU stock exchanges.
Selected Russian banks are being cut out of the Swift international payments system in a bid to cripple Russian trade or have been hit by asset freezes and other restrictions. The foreign assets of Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu have been frozen in the EU, which has also imposed sanctions on all 351 members of Russia’s parliament.
Bank accounts held by Russian nationals in the EU are being limited to €100,000. Russian airlines and private jets are being banned from EU airspace, and a ban has been introduced on exports of aircraft and aviation parts to Russia, as well as of hi-tech goods including semiconductors, computers, telecoms and information security equipment and sensors.
The EU’s policy of potentially rolling out the temporary protection directive and extending settlement, work, and welfare rights to all Ukrainian refugees for a period of up to three years is in contrast to its treatment of other refugees made homeless as a result of war or conflicts outside Europe.
Refugees from the wars in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan have been obliged to apply for asylum on a case-by-case basis before being extended settlement or other benefits.
According to the UN International Organisation for Migration, there were just under 18,000 refugees living in camps in Greece, a EU member state, in December last year, with 60 per cent of them having no access to food or money and half of them being children.
If granted asylum, the refugees are granted benefits for 30 days.
During the 2015 European refugee crisis when some 1.3 million people came to the continent in search of asylum from war or societal breakdown in their home countries outside Europe, most of them Syrians, but also Afghans, Libyans, Iraqis, and others, some EU countries closed their borders and refused to take in refugees.
The situation was resolved when Germany agreed to admit some one million refugees as asylum-seekers and the EU made an agreement with Turkey, a major transit country for the refugees, that it would increase border security and take back future refugees entering Greece in return for six billion euros.
A version of this article appears in print in the 3 March, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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